Nikka Fish Market and Grill

Fish was fresh and menu was vast. The cashier was not very helpful as we pondered… being from TN we needs guidance and got none. water was not offered as a refill.

We love this place and since it is near our home we frequent it often, on a weekend especially. Everything that we’ve had has been really great. My favorites are the sweet potato fries, the Baja fish taco and the hot pot. Great salads also. Beware that if you ask a question like, «do you have Manhattan clam chowder?» they will answer yes. Probably because they have no idea what Manhattan clam chowder is. The ahi taco will be very undercooked, in case you were thinking otherwise. I’m not sure if that is standard but it wasn’t appetizing. I also enjoy the fact that they have outdoor seating and heaters since often we have cool weather in the evenings. A really good choice for Goleta dining!

Finally got to go. Special of the day was a wonderfully prepared spicy ahi burger with optioned sweet potato fries. My wife had the macadamia halibut burger with salad. She has leftovers, I’m laying on the bed writing this review. Stuffed but well worth it. Customer friendly and helpful with the menu. Alot to choose from. Will return when in town.

Went for the fish and chips and decided on scallops. Very tasty and fresh. The service was friendly and welcoming. Thanks Toya.

Nikka is a great place for fish-​lovers looking for an informal lunch or dinner. The food is not elaborate, just simple and tasty. But the menu is fairly extensive. There are a variety of preparations to suit those looking for grilled fish, battered and fried fish, fish tacos, stir fries or hot pots. My favorite is the daily special which includes your choice of grilled fish with rice or garlic mashed potatoes, vegetables and a salad. The food is not inexpensive for a place where you order at the counter, but is reasonably priced for seafood.

I was craving fish so I decided to pop into this little fish market by my house. Upon the suggestion from the gal behind the counter I ordered the lunch special which was an Ahi sandwich. Amazballs! It had a huge piece of fish with mounds of avocado and sprouts. The bun was grilled and had fresh tomatoes and grilled onions. Also loved the garlic fries which rivaled any that I have had in Gilroy! Now I’m wondering to myself «Why haven’t I tried this place sooner?» I will definitely be back!

With this place you have to keep it simple… meaning eat it fresh, fried or grilled. Don;t go for the fancy stuff like cioppino. Fish is really fresh and tasted great. Good quality.
Positive:
1) Very fresh and good quality fish
2) Staff was friendly
3) Not super busy
Negative:
1) Order at counter
2) No bathroom (you have to use the sushi restaurant bathroom 3 doors down)
3) Cioppino and Seafood pasta was terrible
Food:
1) Cioppino — had good quality fish (tender fish, sweet crab and juicy shrimp) ruined but the actual stuff they used in the soup base. Tomato base tasted like it is from the can spiced with too much dried fennel seeds. Awful. By the looks of the cioppino from other Unilocalers I believe this item varies a lot in how they prepare it. Avoid.
2) Seafood pasta — had good quality fish ruined by too much bell pepper and why they would put fennel seeds and green onion is beyond me. Hated it. Avoid
3) Bread that accompanied meal was really tasty
4) Clam chowder — awesome. highly recommend. Lots of clams and not too heavy
5) Salad with cilantro ranch dressing — dressing was delicious.
For us it seemed like they had really fresh tasty fish ruined by the sauce preparation. From the pictures of the dishes we ordered it seems the recipe was inconsistent each time. I will be back but will stick to the basic items.

Best seafood lunch counter when visiting UC Santa Barbara (Goleta, CA). This place is owned by Sushi Teri, next door and provides the freshest and sushi grade fish. The seafood case, proudly displays their assortment of clamps, oysters, ahi, mahi mahi, and Scottish salmon. All of this fine seafood can be ordered and purchased raw or walk over to their dine in counter and order the seafood prepared in many Italian style entrees: cioppino, clams with linguine, seafood pasta.
They also feature clam chowder in both red or New England style (white).
Try their oysters on the half shell or Rockefeller! Large, fresh, pacific oysters!

The grilled shrimp taco, seafood soup, and seared ahi burger were all excellent. Some of the best fresh seafood I had since I visited Japan.

Delicious. Ordered the seafood combo. Scallops were cooked to perfection!!! Calamari was awesome with incredibly light & minimal battering.
Service was outstanding by one girl in particular.
What took me so long to come here?! (Btw i came back the very next day and ordered same thing. Next time fish sandwich)

¹⁰⁄₁₀ would recommend this place! It’s pretty hole in the wall and I was coming for the fish tacos. But I ended up with the charboiled salmon plate, which was perfection. It’s $ 14.50 so more on the pricier side but the dish was such amazing quality I dont mind it at all.
Rice– mango and pepper infused brown rice! Im obsessed. It paired perfectly with the salmon, which was cooked with the perfect flavors!
Mixed Veggies– green beans, sweet onions, broccoli/​cauliflower, carrots, bokchoy, zucchini. Its a very nice mix and all made the way I like it.
The service was great! The guys kept coming to ask if we needed anything. Ill definitely be going back for the Dungeness Crab Salad and the Seared Ahi Burger w/​sweet potato fries!

Fresher FISH can’t be found than at… a FISH MARKET.
I had the breaded fish tacos, which were good, though the addition of cheese threw me since… nobody serves seafood with cheese. But that aside, very good. I would actually like to try all the other dishes they have, as they sound great. Solid seafood coming from an unassuming establishment — basically a fish market that has seating. Check it out if you find yourself in the area.

First the cons: the seared ahi burger was not so much «seared» as cooked. Just a hint of pink inside the large, thick slice. Also, timing could have been better. We ordered half a dozen oysters and two plates. My boyfriend received his meal first, then I got my plate (about 3 mins later), and lastly our oysters were brought out. Although there is no «appetizer» portion of the menu I figured all places would serve the oysters first. Better to bring out a shared dish before individual dishes, right?
Now the significant pros: the oysters should have been first but perhaps the policy here is «save the best for last.» If so– understood! They were delectable, meaty, and perfectly dressed. Some of the best oysters I’ve had. The tuna could have been more rare but I thought my burger was so tasty I didn’t consider complaining. Great toasted bun, huge slice of tuna, lots of alfalfa sprouts and avocado with a zesty chipotle mayo. I opted for garlic fries which added $ 1 but made for a equally delicious side. My boyfriend had trout with veggies and regular fries. I tried the fish and it was lovely. He devoured it! His only gripe was that he didn’t upgrade to garlic fries because they were so good (esp with a little drizzle of lemon).
This would easily be a five star meal if a few shortcomings were corrected.

J wanted sushi, so we were walking towards Sushi Teri when we stopped to check out this place. A lady sitting in the seats outside told us we had to go inside and try the food. She was very persistence and told us to at least check out the menu. In retrospect, we are such push-​overs because we ended up caving into the peer pressure and walking inside.
J loves seafood, so he fell in love with the menu. Looking at the printed menu behind the counter and the hand-​written menu on the glass sides of the meat counter, he picked hot pot. I had a hard time deciding between the charbroiled salmon or seafood pasta but I ended up choosing the seafood pasta. It comes with a salad or soup and I picked soup. The soup turned out to be clam chowder. It was tasty and there were good amount of clam in it.
To some people, $ 16 for pasta is quite pricy; but for the amount of seafood and quality of food, I say that it is well worth it. The hotpot was tasty too even though the intention behind some of the ingredients in it were questionable. There was onion and carrot in it, which does not really add much flavor or texture to it.
Nonetheless, I was very pleased with my experience. It is an order at the counter and seat yourself establishment, but service was great. Servers walk by and ask if you need anything and they take away empty dishes quite often. I definitely see myself revisiting and trying other items on the menu, maybe next time I will get the charbroiled salmon.

I was up in Santa Barbara/​Goleta area with my cousins, and we scouted out this seafood place. We had a bad experience at Santa Barbara Shellfish on the Wharf, so we wanted to hit a good seafood place. Nikka is on Calle Real near Kingston in Goleta. For those of you unfamiliar with the area, UCSB is actually in Goleta, which is about 15 min North of DT Santa Barbara.
We ordered grilled salmon ($ 13.95 | inc grilled veggies, rice or fries, and mango slaw; steamed clams ($ 13.95), and cioppino ($ 13.95). The latter two include soup or salad. To drink, I had a Summerland chardonnay from a local winery ($ 8).
First of all, my salmon was really good. The fish was very fresh, it was not overcooked, and the mango slaw complimented, not overpowered the fish. BTW, I hate places that serve tartar sauce w/​grilled fish. Likewise, the grilled veggies were crunchy, and included baby bok choy — a nice surprise. The rice, eh: 4 Stars overall. Secondarily, I tried the steamed clams. While they were not as good as The Deck in Laguna Beach, they were better compared to SB Shellfish. The broth was more tasty vs SB, but was missing the garlic & portuguese sausage in The Deck’s version: 4 Stars. Lastly, the cioppino was a good rendition of a SF classic. It was reasonably priced, the seafood was fresh & plentiful, and the broth went well w/​the garlic bread. Again, not as good as The Deck, but it tasted good just the same: 4 Stars.
Regarding the ambiance, its located in a strip mall. You walk up and order, and they bring your food to you. Nonetheless, they display the fresh seafood in a case upfront: 4 Stars. Likewise, the service was friendly and efficient. It was a real pleasant experience: 4 Stars.
Like most oceanside places, avoid the touristy pier and go where the locals go when you are in Santa Barbara. The food is better, and less expensive. You’re welcome!

The cashier that helped us clearly was new… BUT the food was good!
Oysters– $ 2 per oysters and it was topped perfectly! The sauce was amazing!!! We only ordered a half dozen but if we knew it was that good we would have ordered the dozen!!! MUST TRY THE OYSTERS!!!
Shrimp Tacos– It was good and the tortilla that it came with came with cheese in between so its like a cheese quesadilla shrimp taco! It was so strange but it worked!
BUT come here for the oysters! Kind of confusing since it isn’t on the menu board, you just have to ask them. But its $ 2/​oyster and sooooooo worth it!!!

So this time I ordered baja shrimp tacos n da Bf ordered an ahi sandwich… All was very good. My shrimp tacos were topped with house sauce which was very, very good. The salad dressing was Japanese inspired and awesome as well! As For the ahi burger, was a good sized ahi steak barely seared that made the priciness worth it. Very very yummy.
Cannot beat the garlic fries topped with grated Parmesan cheese n chopped Italian parsley. WOW. Heaven on a plate!!!
Very laid back atmosphere. There’s a nice big dining space indoor n patio seating outside with heating lamps if needed. Order at counter n sit down with your number n they’ll bring your food out. Fountain drinks are refillable. Plenty of parking n not a bustling plaza anyway.

In a mini-​mall, but once inside they did a pretty nice job at turning Nikka Fish into a fishy/​boat décor. Small but ample amount of seating inside, and a tiny patio facing the parking lot.
The fish & chips I ordered ($ 12.95) was quite fantastic: 5 – 6 small and thin pieces of fresh mild fish, with light batter, and fries. (4.5 stars)
That’s the upside.
Service had an attitude, the talapia plate that my dining parter had was inedible. When we told the server, she said «that’s how talapia is». Really? We’ve both ordered it before many times, and it’s the first time we threw it up in our napkin.
Fish & Chips rule, but that’s it from what I see.

By far, the BEST sweet potato fries I’ve ever had in my entire life. I’ll leave you with that intro.
Service –
It’s in between a dine-​in restaurant and fast food joint. You order and pay at the counter and they’ll bring you the food to the table. The woman who served us was really nice! She checked up on us a couple of times and made sure we were all well taken care of!
Food –
Seared Ahi Tuna Burger w/​a side of sweet potato fries.
It was monstrous. You know, the kind that requires a toothpick to hold everything together… big. My friend is an aspiring chef and he couldn’t stop admiring it. The dude took a video of the food… I had a feeling I was in good hands. & yeeesss, it was delicious. The tuna was cooked perfectly and topped with fresh avocado, sprouts, lettuce, tomato, and a side of salsa. The sweet potato fries were crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and seasoned with lemon pepper. I finished the whole damn thing.
¹⁰⁄₁₀. I’ll be back again, Nikka. Don’t miss me too much.

Visited this place on the way back to L.A. from Solvang, its cool because its a few seconds off the 101.
It’s not a sit down rest., you order from the counter & get it served to you after you pay.
–I got the Halibut Quesadilla, $ 13.95
it came w/​a soup or salad. I got the soup: Clam Chowder and it was bomb.
The quesadilla itself was great, lots of halibut meatiness and cheese :)
–My hubby got the Hot Pot $ 16.95, he thought it was gonna be a bowl full of seafood but it was actually a soup. It was okay, maybe the broth needed a little more complexity? It was just kinda plain and I think that the dish is overpriced for the amount of seafood you actually get: 4 small shrimps, 2 mussels, 2 clams and a few small pieces of fish chunks.
However, we’re still looking forward to another trip there to try more dishes!